Lesson 2 : Races and Languages
Languages of UK, What language do people in the UK citizens speak?
English, of course! The truth, however, is that over 60 million people populates the
United Kingdom, and many of them speak other languages besides English. Some of
them don’t even know English, even though they live in the UK.
Indeed, the population of the UK is incredibly diverse, and people often
underestimate how colourful is the linguistic landscape there.
1. History of the UK
The UK, often called Great Britain, England or the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland. Not many people know that these three names
denote three different things.
To learn more on this matter, however, let’s look at the history of this region. Here is
a short timeline1:
1927 – the Kingdom of England was formed.
13th century – King Edward I invaded Wales. Since then, all English kings have
received Prince of Wales, which signifies their power over Wales. However, Wales,
officially recognized as a part of England in the 1530s-40s when the Acts of Union
got passed. These policies extent the norms and laws of England to Wales. This law
was the first significant union of what we call today the UK or the United Kingdom.
The 1540s – Ireland became a dependent kingdom of England, meaning that the
king of England was also Ireland.
1707 – Queen Anne unites Scotland and England as Great Britain. After years of
political tension between the two kingdoms, they finally joined. The reasons behind
this union were financial, religious and political. Since this union was beneficial to
both sides, the countries’ parliaments passed the Acts of Union, and soon Scotland
and England became one nation.
In 1801 – Union with Ireland; however, it didn’t last long.
1919-1921 – the Irish War of Independence against England. The war resulted in the
division of Ireland into Northern, which remained a part of England, and the Southern
region, also known as the Irish Free State, which remained a part of the British
Commonwealth for the next decade.
1937 – the southern region gained sovereignty and became what we today call the
Republic of Ireland.
As you can see, the United Kingdom is not simply another name of England. It
stands for the union of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Despite this union, people kept their traditions and languages, which have
contributed significantly to the linguistic heritage of the UK.
2. Official native languages of UK
English is a de facto official language in the UK. It is the primary language spoken
by 92% (50 million people) of the population.
The remaining 8% (4.2 million people) claim to have a different primary and native
languages.
However, majority of them (3.3 million) have a proficient level of English.
Nevertheless, English is not the only indigenous language spoken in the UK.
Languages are an essential part of this notion of belonging to a particular nation.
In turn, this has resulted in a constantly growing number of young people interested
in learning some of the dying out indigenous languages of the UK.
Scots is the second most spoken language after English. The English language
strongly influences it, and it is even considered an English dialect. While most Scots
speakers (1.5 million) have learned it as a second language (besides English),
Scots remain an integral part of the Scottish national identity.
Welsh is the third most spoken language in the UK – it has 560,000 speakers. It is a
Brittonic language from the Celtic language family. Welsh is the only language with
legal status in England. Lawful means that Welsh should be treated as equal to
English in the country. As a result, all public signs should be in both languages. Still,
the number of Welsh speakers is relatively small – only 19% of the Welsh population
speaks the language.
Scottish Gaelic is the Gaelic language from the Celtic language family. It developed
out of Old Irish and is spoken by 57,000 people, mainly in Scotland.
The meaning of race :
Race is a categorisation that is based mainly on physical attributes or traits,
assigning people to a specific race simply by having similar appearances or skin
colour (for example, Black or white). The categorisation is rooted in white supremacy
and efforts to prove biological superiority and maintain dominance over others. It's
now widely accepted that race is a social construct. However, having been racialised
and shared common experiences of racism, racial identity is important to many and
can be a basis for collective organising and support for racially minoritised
individuals. A racial group could be, for example, ‘Black Britons’ which would include
people who areboth black and British citizens.
